Breaking Bad Is Back: Who's Coming to Rain Hellfire on Walter White?

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Breaking Bad Is Back: Who's Coming to Rain Hellfire on Walter White?

Walter White is going down. Probably. Maybe? The mid-season premiere of AMC's harrowing meth drama kicks off this Sunday, with only eight episodes to go before it all comes to end, one way or another. And if Scarface--a film the show has referenced more than once--taught us anything, it's that drug kingpins aren't immortal. And Tony Montana wasn't riddled with cancer. That can't be said for Walt (Bryan Cranston). Even if he does manage to get out of the meth game clean like he promised his wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), he still has a terminal illness to contend with.
Although the actuarial odds on Walt don't seem promising, show creator Vince Gilligan told New York Magazine in May that the show would have a "somewhat happy ending" and that it would be a "victory for Walt," though he warned that viewers "might see the episode and say, 'What the fuck was he talking about?'" (He later confessed that he was a little drunk during that interview. And the ominous, desolate teaser that was released last week didn't inspire what we would characterize as "hope."
(Spoiler alert: Spoilers for the previous seasons of Breaking Bad follow.)
During a (presumably more sober) interview with WIRED a few weeks back, Gilligan was predictably vague about how the show's final eight episodes would play out, but did note that they will "revisit old moments and old ideas and prior actions resonate and tend to prompt reactions -- at times delayed reactions – but reactions nonetheless." Does this mean that Walt's attempts to leave the drug game might prove to be (gasp!) unsuccessful? Might we see some familiar underworld figures come back to haunt him?
"You might, you might indeed as a matter of fact," Gilligan replied. "I apologize for being a little coy but, yes, I think it's safe to say you might see some old faces in these final eight."
It's safe to assume there won't be too many plot lines left dangling at the end of Breaking Bad, a series in which even the smallest detail—each color, visual cue, and casual reference—contains some deeper meaning. There are no throwaway lines, and every "Chekhov's gun" gets resolved.
So with that in mind, what familiar faces can we expect to see when the show returns? Many of Walt's main adversaries—Tuco Salamanca, Gus Fring—have been killed off and presumably won't return in the form of actual ghosts (unless Heisenberg starts getting high on his own supply). But Walt has wreaked a lot of havoc over the last five years, and there are plenty of wounded parties out there, just waiting for Walt or one of his associates to slip up. For every action, there is a reaction. Or, to paraphrase Walt's on-again-off-again partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), "It's just basic physics, yo."
Click through the gallery above to see some of the players Walt has (intentionally or inadvertently) wronged and the probability that they'll come back to play a part in Breaking Bad's final run.

Saul Goodman

Unfinished Business: Saul has called in a lot of favors from friends to help Walt and Jesse over the course of the series, and at some point one of them may decide they weren't properly compensated. For instance, back in Season 2, Saul paid a guy named "Jimmy In-'N-Out" $80,000 and a pound of meth to pretend to be Heisenberg and take a fall. But it quickly became clear that the real Heisenberg was still at large. So where does that leave Jimmy?
Odds He'll Be Back: 10/10. Even if Saul wanted to escape Heisenberg's death grip—as he's tried to do on several occasions—Walt can't seem to quit him. And since there have been discussions about a possible spin-off show, he may be the only one we can say with certainty will get out of the series finale alive. (Unless it's a prequel?)

Ted Beneke

Unfinished Business: Well, there's that whole coma thing. Ted promised Skyler that he wouldn't tell anyone about the goons she sent to his house, or about the fraudulent bookkeeping she did for his company. But can you really trust a guy who buys a luxury car instead of paying off his back taxes?
Odds He'll Be Back: 5/10. It's tempting to think we've seen the last of the maddening Ted, and he's certainly performed the narrative function of drawing Skyler deeper into Walt's criminal enterprise. But Ted may well prove too stupid to leave well enough alone.

Krazy 8's Father

Unfinished Business: Walt choked Krazy 8 with a bicycle lock in Jesse's basement -- still one of the most grueling Breaking Bad deaths ever, which is really saying something. But right before that, the drug dealer-turned-DEA informant shared a human moment, reminiscing about Tampico Furniture, which his father owned and where Walt bought his son's crib. Walt is still haunted by this personification of lost innocence; he cuts the crust off his sandwiches, just like Krazy 8 asked him to.
Odds He'll Be Back: 1/10. It would be nice to meet the man behind the cheesy advertisements, but there's no reason to think he even knows who killed his son.

Gale Boetticher

Unfinished Business Technically, Gale died when Jesse shot him in the face at the end of Season Three. But he keeps popping up posthumously—in a cringeworthy karaoke video, in Jesse's guilt-wracked flashbacks, and most notably in his inscription of Walt's copy of Whitman's Leaves of Grass. That book, which Walt cockily leaves on his toilet, is what seems to tip Hank off to Heisenberg's true identity. Walt and Jesse may have murdered Gale to protect themselves from Gus, but they may not be able to protect themselves from the bad karma they've earned.
Odds He'll Be Back: 8/10. He won't be around in corporeal form, but we may yet see more visions of Gale. And even if we don't see him, he has left a paper trail that is clearly leading Hank to his killer.

Donald Margolis

Unfinished Business: When we last saw the hapless air-traffic controller, he was so distraught over his daughter Jane's death that he inadvertently caused an airplane collision over Albuquerque. Walt later hears on the radio that Margolis attempted suicide, but not whether or not he survived.
Odds He'll Be Back: 6/10. Jane is the rare character that haunts both Walt, who was responsible for her death, and Jesse, who thinks he was. It may be a long shot that Donald would return to seek revenge, but it could be the sort of long-running, cause-and-effect storyline that Gilligan loves.

Bogdan Wolynetz

Unfinished Business: Walt's tyrannical former boss has always hated his ex-employee--and that was before his wife unmanned him by out-negotiating him. Bogdan hasn't been around since, but if he ever got any dirt on Walt, he probably wouldn't keep it under wraps.
Probability of a Comeback: 2/10. It's not likely we'll ever see those eyebrows again. But we wouldn't mind a final showdown between Walt and his mirror image in emasculated rage.

Andrea Cantillo

Unfinished Business: In the first half of Season 5, Jesse ended his relationship with Andrea because he didn't want to tell her what he did for a living. (Fair enough, considering he sells drugs and they met in rehab.) But he's clearly still in love with her. Oh, right, and then there's the fact that Walt poisoned her son, unbeknownst to Jesse.
Odds She'll Be Back: 8/10. If Hank's snooping leads him to Jesse, he could find his way to Andrea. Or Jesse could come sniveling back to her. Or who knows? We're all waiting for Jesse to learn about what really happened to her son, but maybe she'll be the one to put the pieces together.